SACRAMENTO  SeaWorld won the day with a potent mix of persuasive reasoning and hardball politics.

The San Diego marine park was facing state legislation that some believed could ruin its business by putting a halt to the signature performing orca shows at Shamu stadium.

But SeaWorld launched an aggressive blitz that kept the legislation bottled up in the Democrat-dominated Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee — a panel known to be sympathetic to groundbreaking animal-rights legislation.

In the end, not one vote was ever cast on the most talked about bill in the Capitol.

Carried by Assemblyman Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica, the measure was shelved last week so that further studies could be undertaken on the impacts of shutting down the shows and banning the breeding of captive orcas. Bloom has vowed to resurrect the issue next year.

Bloom introduced the bill March 7, sparking an intense campaign right out of the gate. Three days later, SeaWorld hired a well-connected energy lobbyist, Pete Montgomery. In turn he brought on board a pro-labor representative to work Democrats. A national public relations team versed in crisis management was also retained.

Over the next four-weeks leading up to last Tuesday’s vote, SeaWorld featured tried-and-true tactics of the trade to boost public support and pressure committee members.

Friends of SeaWorld with local and statewide pull, including former San Diego mayor and current chamber of commerce CEO Jerry Sanders and top tourism officials, went door-to-door in the Capitol. SeaWorld’s normally reclusive top executives took center stage, meeting with reporters and holding a rare open-invitation meeting with Capitol staff. Glossy packets telling SeaWorld’s story in history, numbers and maps were handed out to all.

Incoming Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, was a force for SeaWorld despite her insistence that she remained neutral on the bill itself. She addressed SeaWorld’s 50th anniversary celebration March 21 — right in the thick of the debate — and has repeatedly praised the park for its value to the economy and marine life.

Speaking privately as to not provoke her wrath, some lawmakers said the message was clear that Atkins wanted the bill stopped in its tracks. For Atkins, the bill was a test of her power and whether she could defend her own district’s economic interests, they said. It was also clear, if unspoken, that some party leaders, perhaps even those on Gov. Jerry Brown’s team, did not want to hand Republicans a jobs issue in an election year.

A pivotal figure for SeaWorld was Scott Wetch, a lobbyist close to many of the causes near and dear to Democrats. A former staffer to respected lawmakers, Wetch spent two days at SeaWorld in preparation. Then, in private meetings he hammered home SeaWorld’s main points and shored up his animal-lover credentials by reminding lawmakers that his firm worked for the Humane Society of the U.S. in the 2011 successful campaign to ban the sale of shark fins in California. And many times he would add that one of Bloom’s adviser’s had worked for a lawmaker who was vehemently against the added shark protections.